My instructor really wants me to keep working on sending her to 2o/2o from a distance and also me moving, i.e. stepping over to the side several feet, as she is moving into 2o/2o position, so Gidget gets accustomed to getting into contact position even though I may already be moving off to the next obstacle. Apparently herding group dogs are also very focused on movement, so I need to get her accustomed to focusing on what she is doing and not distracted if I start to move away before she is released from the contact.

Sounds like a great trainer!!! Better to start your distractions now in the beginning! She'll quickly learn to stay on no matter what you are doing. I'm doing this with Envy and her travel board. We run with, send, call over and then do front and rear crosses while they are on the board in 2o2o.

The foundation Agility class that I go to, teaches the weaves with the Channel method. Lucy, my Shih Tzu x Maltese has gone through one course and I will be starting Kris in the Foundation Agility class in Feb.

The foundation Agility class that I go to, teaches the weaves with the Channel method. Lucy, my Shih Tzu x Maltese has gone through one course and I will be starting Kris in the Foundation Agility class in Feb.

Channels are great. I taught Gabby with a trainer and she did them until her arthritis flared up. Channels are not so good if you make mistakes on your own, keep them open too long, don't make it harder and don't realize your Dobe isn't weaving but plowing through them I have 21" channels I can use if I can't do the 2x2s but I wanted to learn a new method.

We can do channels, Susan Garret 2x2, Mary Ellen barry 2x2 or Jo Sermon's new kind of 2x2 method in our class.

Not sure if anyone uses a travel board to train 2o2o but thought I'd share how we use it. First I taught the paw touch. Then I shaped her for a bit to get on 2o2o without it just to get her use to position (no name command). Then I put the target and put her on it just 1" away and said "go spot". Slowly moved her back until she was running. Only one paw has to touch the target. It never occurred to me until just now that I have carpet on carpet so she must see a difference in color????

Elsie's results from the year, pretty all over the place! It's a shame her finals win result is not on there as it wasn't an official class - would be keen to see the m/s! The novice result on there was a really awful, twisty course and I practically walked her around haha - half the speed compared to some of her faster runs!! Interesting to see though

Jones earned QQ #4&5 this weekend and should have had #6 but I screwed up the LAST jump of the last run... I was watching my dog and not running my dog, and it caused me to have to blind cross him instead of front cross and sent him to far out to make the jump (a triple) Bad MOM!!!!!
But he also earned his T2B title... AKC said he only earned 14... Even though I have the stickers for 15 NOW 16 runs... oh well... So he has officially gotten his T2B title

He also got 2 legs towards his XF title

And unofficially he earned 2QQQ's (not official since he doesn't have his XF title yet)
and he got a QQQQ!!!! (He could have had 2 of those 2, but I wanted to beat Julie Hill and Smartie in T2B so I pretty much didn't support his contacts and just let him go... sad part... we still didn't beat them lol! Just too fast for us, by about .5 seconds)

He went 8 for 10 this weekend and both NQ's were my fault completely... He was such a good boy this weekend, sneezing and itching and all...

Jones also got a massage, and the therapist was really impressed he was running as well as he was... As soon as she started working on his neck he wanted to get away, he was rolling over trying to avoid it as much as possible same with his lower back... Poor guy...

Elsie's results from the year, pretty all over the place! It's a shame her finals win result is not on there as it wasn't an official class - would be keen to see the m/s! The novice result on there was a really awful, twisty course and I practically walked her around haha - half the speed compared to some of her faster runs!! Interesting to see though

Those are some fabulous times: 6.88 yps down to a low of 4.08 yps with the majority in the high 5's. Well done - she really moves!

Well agility class went awesome tonight. She's starting to get the flow. However we now need to work on our flat work because somebody's very obedient dog only wants to heel left and not go over jumps from the cross fronts on the right.... I hope I don't screw up our obedience and rally stuff!

Guess who got Weave COMPLIMENTS at class last night! Oh yes she did...not just Flirt but ME TOO. The other students were late so I mentioned to the instructor we'd started the 2x2s. Everyone in class cheered when Flirt hit this really hard weave entrance!! And did all 12. Then she did it again and again. After class my instructor pulled me aside to tell me what a difference and great job we did So I have new found confidence to start Envy...we started today. Instructor said the best time to do this is when you have a lot of extra time. I'm off work and don't know when I'll be back. We are starting weaves "in class" in January but if I'm working it will be difficult.

I am loving Envy's agility class and kicking myself for not switching when Flirt was a puppy which was my original plan. We worked on body awareness today. She learned the wobble board and 3 bosu balls. Apparently movement was not an issue. She learned to send around a cone in a 3 minute session. We've been working on perchwork at home and I've been luring. I shaped today and she learned to get into heel position. we also did jump work, plank work, backing up and a few more things. I didn't do any practice today because it's cold as HECK out even in CA. Going to buy some ski pants or something for class for the next month. My last instructor took a break for 6 weeks and I have no warm enough clothes. Next week we are working jump set points and bringing our contact boards to class.

USDAA this past weekend. Qd in P1 jumpers, standard & Performance Speed jumping - 2nd place & prize money for the PSJ finals V was 2.4 sec behind a very speedy weim. So not too shabby for our first finals. P1 gamblers - handler error - dropped my arm. P2 snooker - well it's snooker, do I really have to explain NQ P1 std on the first day - table DOWN is his arch enemy - over time! I think that's it. Oh, prey drive kicked in when her saw something so our Performance Grand Prix was a bust. All in all - very happy. Aside from PGP - all the mistakes were mine (except table DOWN!, I won't take credit for that one) Super pleased with his attitude and willingness and best yet, he was having a blast. He was fast - really made me think. No more trials until after the new year.

We have all our game Qs - now just need 2 more std legs to move to P2!

I think this is the 4th week of training making this maybe 8 times she has seen the weaves... not positive... but I am so happy with how well she is doing.
*Also I'm never teaching push-pull weaves EVER again*

I have a love/hate relationship with Envy's class. I called and asked about that class when Flirt was a puppy and got scared cuz the trainer is a world team trainer...WHY WHY did I get scared! Flirt would be awesome

Last night we worked on Susan Salo's jumping DVD and teaching correct jumping form with set points and grids.

Flirt's weave pole re-training is phenomenal with the 2x2 method. This works well for me. I think I made every mistake known to man on the channels method. I started Envy and she can find the entry anywhere with me standing by her. We are now working on sending with me 2-3 ft away. She can do 2 ft, 3 ft is iffy. still just at 2 poles but I see how it really teaches entries

Ok, we are ready. We meaning me of course. I'm re-debutting Flirt next year. My goal was February but I just found a January trial. We'll see how class goes next week. We had a horrific weave entrance even the instructor new she couldn't get. The goal was to make handlers think on their feet so much of the course was extremely difficult. But I didn't get a good feel on her weaves. The jump was perpendicular to the weaves and she landed at pole 2 already. BUT when she got in she never came out and she tried hard. She nailed all the other hard stuff. She's evening sticking her 2o2o which I gave up on previously.

I have started Magic the giant in agility, we've had two lessons, I am amazed already - she is brilliant! All the very early training I put in really helped, she is a year old now and I love that I don't have to work on really basic stuff with her like focus, tugging, giving the tug back, recall, wobble boards etc. as she has really got it all! We've started some circle work, she sort of gets the idea, being a show dog and all, but is still trying to cut behind me now and then... But she LOVES racing with me and doesn't get bored of chasing me around which is fun!

We taught her the tunnel last night which she picked up easily, and have spent one session shaping going over a hurdle, and last night did some more shaping and sending over the hurdle, then introduced a line of hurdles with uneven spacing. No height of course as she is still a baby I have been teaching her to take breaks too, as that's something I found really useful with Elsie, she doesn't quite 'get it' just yet, but picking it up quickly. I walk her away from the gear and tell her "off you go" and encourage her to sniff around in the bushes, have a little drink and relax for a moment... Then "let's do some work!" when it's time to get started again.

I think our biggest challenge will be working around other dogs, at the moment she is working with just me around, and with Elsie on the field being held by someone else. She will start formal lessons next year, she isn't distracted by other dogs really, but she is a super grumpy pants if they get in her face or try to sniff her bum.

"OMG her NOSE IS SO HIGH - she is SO BIG"
"Oh SUBTLE is NOT in her vocabulary"

My agility instructor showed me how to get tighter turns with flirt a wrap and it's the first time she's used food with her. And Flirt is of course nose poking her, slamming into a finish, spinning, offering a paw while she's trying to explain. I was cracking up. She runs shelties.

We had a really neat exercise today. Big circle with a tunnel at one "edge" and 6 jumps in a circle about 4 ft apart/next to each other. We had to do jump tunnel jump tunnel 7 times using each jump and the beginning one twice. If the dog was on your left it had to take the left entrance and vice versa.

Flirt "did it" correctly with me. We didn't have any OFF course jumps! BUT you could hear her landing hand, then turning vs turning in air. After my instructor worked with her, wow amazing! she had such tight turns.

Then at the end of class I switched it up and forgot to have her 2o2o on her aframe and we ran into each other, I tripped and fell. Isn't she lucky to have me!

Competed in my first USDAA Team trial a week ago, trying to get both Spree and Pula qualified for Cynosport in teams. Both dogs teams qualified in Performance. I had already committed to run Performance before I decided to move both dogs up to Championship in January.

Both dogs ran well, with Pula clean except for Standard (my bad) and a fast Jumpers we had a refusal. Spree was clean in every run for the weekend (7 runs- team jumpers, team snooker, team gamblers, team standard, team relay grand prix, speed jumpers - both rounds), placing second in Speed Jumpers (and winning a couple of dollars) and regular jumpers. Pula did well also.

I was under the weather for both days, and was just trying to hang in there to finish the weekend. Lot's of muscle aches from a lingering shingles outbreak.

Spree also placed second in the overall individual dogs in Performance 16inch.

It was a very competitive trial, since lots of folks showed up to try and get their Q's for team…fast dogs and lots of runs. We just got done both days as the sun set and it got dark. 1000 runs or so in the two day event.

Down side is that since both dogs are moving up, I won't likely get to use these Q's, so it served as good practice for the next one in March where I will run 3 Dog Team for Championship.

No videos or photos. Just good memories.

We are likely out of the ring until the end on January so that I can try to heal myself up.

Boohoo poor Elsie has hurt her semitendinosus muscle - it's really tight and sore! Doing massage, rest and pain killers for a bit, and seeing the osteo next month. Should be back to her regular self in a few weeks, lucky it's not a bad injury!

I'm learning so much in agility class. We have come a long way since our first class. Last night we learned blind cross and worked on making my front cross more smooth. And we ran a course for the first time!

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